The subject matter disclosed herein relates to gas turbine engines, and more specifically, to systems and methods for an oxidant heating system for gas turbine engines.
Gas turbine engines are used in a wide variety of applications, such as power generation, aircraft, and various machinery. Gas turbine engines generally combust a fuel with an oxidant (e.g., air) in a combustor section to generate hot combustion products, which then drive one or more turbine stages of a turbine section. In turn, the turbine section drives one or more compressor stages of a compressor section. Again, the fuel and oxidant mix in the combustor section, and then combust to produce the hot combustion products. Under certain conditions, such as low temperatures, the compressor section may be susceptible to undesirable issues, such as icing and/or surging. Therefore, it may be desirable to increase an inlet temperature of the compressor section to reduce issues associated with low temperatures. Furthermore, gas turbine engines typically consume a vast amount of air as the oxidant, and output a considerable amount of exhaust gas into the atmosphere. In other words, the exhaust gas is typically wasted as a byproduct of the gas turbine operation.